Love thy neighbors.

This is not a typical block-party story.

In the 60's, my favorite American story teller wanted to see what had happened in the country that he called home. John Steinback with his best friend, Charley, a big bluish French poodle, set out for their fact-finding trip in a customized truck named after Don Quixote’s horse, Rocinante,

The provisions this prolific writer packed for the long working odyssey from his home in New York to his birth place in Salinas, California, also included guns and fishing poles. But this homeowner’s real reason for arming his temporary home was not the same as the ones that other homeowners had in mind. He wanted to give others an impression that he and his four-legged buddy were on a hunting and fishing expedition.

On the way to his childhood home in California, when the master and his beloved follower stopped to take a much needed rest to get hydrated in the parched Mojave Desert, they noticed two coyotes were near by in the same neighborhood.

Since wild dogs are considered vermin,  this well-equipped as well as trained traveler sprang into action and was about to do a favor for the invisible chickens and chicken farms around him. He reached for his rifle, and pointed it at one of these two nonthreatening desert dogs. But when he was about to pull the trigger, he relented.

Before leaving the desolate desert  country, the author of many prize winning books opened two cans of Charley’s food and left there for the coyotes he was about to kill just moments ago. - Ayee.

*”Travels with Charley,” John Steinbeck, 1962